田中 頼璋

Tanaka Raisho (1866–1940) was a Nihonga (Japanese-style) painter born in what is now Onan, Shimane Prefecture, the second son of a village headman. At 17 he went to Hagi to study under Mori Kansai. After military service in Hiroshima, he moved to Tokyo in 1902 and entered the studio of Kawabata Gyokusho, painting landscapes based on sketching from life.
He won medals at the Japan Art Association Exhibition from 1903, served as a juror for the Tatsumi Painting Society and a councillor of the Japanese Painting Society, and taught at the Kawabata Painting School. From 1908 he won repeated prizes at the Bunten (Ministry of Education Art Exhibition), including special selection prizes (tokusen) in 1916 and 1917, and became a leading figure among its traditionalist painters. At the Teiten (Imperial Art Exhibition) he became a recommended artist in 1919 and a committee member and juror in 1924. He also ran his own studio school for younger painters. After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake he settled in Hiroshima, where he lived in quiet retirement. Having studied Chinese painting, he excelled at landscapes drawn closely from nature. He died at his home in Hiroshima in 1940.